The Healthiest Salad Ever

I made this salad for dinner last night, so good and so healthy, can you get any healthier than kale, lentils, and quinoa in one meal? This is great when you want a light but filling dinner or lunch or would be great for a side dish, but it is pretty filling so may be a lot if the rest of your meal is heavy. A bonus, like most every meal I make, it’s very quick and easy to make.

Ingredients:

1 cup green lentils

1 cup quinoa

3 tbsp sun dried tomatoes, chopped (I used ones that came in olive oil, see step 3 below if you used dried ones)**

1 tbsp olive oil

1-3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 bunch of kale, stemmed and chopped ( I used red kale, but green is always great too!)

1 large avocado, diced

Dressing Ingredients:

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice, about 2 lemons

1/3 cup olive oil

pinch of salt, pepper, sugar (not pictured)

Directions:

1. Cook lentils. Fresh lentils are the easiest legume to cook, just follow a 2:1 ratio. 2 cups of water for 1 cup of lentils. Be sure to wash the lentils throughly first! I add in a clove of minced garlic while cooking. Bring lentils and water to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer (just a little bit of movement in the beans), cook covered for about 20 minutes. You want them to be soft but not mushy.

2. Cook the quinoa. I just followed the package directions, they take about the same amount of time as the lentils, 15 minutes to cook and 5 to cool with lid on. If you are buying bulk: bring 2 cups of water to a boil, add quinoa, turn heat down to low and simmer, covered until all liquid is absorbed (~15 minutes). Turn off heat, let stand about 5 minutes and fluff with fork.

**3. If you opted for dry sun dried tomatoes, soak in hot water for about 15 minutes. Do this while lentils and quinoa are cooking. Then drain and chop.

4. While lentils and quinoa are cooking and tomatoes soaking, if you did not prep before starting you can de-stem you kale now. This is the most tedious part of the dinner, but it’s worth it! I just use a sharp pairing knife and run it down the stem, it seems to be the fastest way I have found.

4. When lentils and quinoa are about done, maybe while quinoa is cooling and lentils have about 5 minutes, start to sauté the minced garlic in the tbsp of olive oil. We like a lot of garlic, so use anywhere from 1-3 cloves ( or more if you want super garlicky). Saute just until garlic is fragrant, only about 2 minutes, then add in kale. Make sure to toss completely so garlic isn’t getting stuck and burning at the bottom of you pan. Cook kale just until brightly colored, again about 2-4 minutes.

5. While kale is cooking you can make the dressing, or again you can do this as prep work before you start everything, which makes life a lot easier! Juice lemons into a 1/3 cup. Add 1/3 cup olive oil. Add pinch of salt, pepper and sugar. Whisk.

6. When everything is done cooking combine kale, quinoa, lentils and chopped sundried tomatoes in a large serving bowl.